Wandering earth

Chapter 2 Mountain

the mountains are there
"We must figure out your eccentricity today, why never go ashore?" The captain said to Feng Fan, "It's been five years, and I can't remember how many countries and ports the 'Blue Water' has been in, but you Never been to shore. If the 'Blue Water' is decommissioned, are you going to sink with it like the hero of the movie?"

"I'll change the boat. Geological engineers like me who don't go ashore are always welcome on marine research ships."

"Is there something on land that frightens you?"

"Instead, there are things on land that I yearn for."

"what?"

"Mountain."

They are now standing on the port side of the "Blue Water" marine geological survey vessel, looking at the Pacific Ocean on the equator.When the Blue Water crossed the equator for the first time a year ago, ancient rituals were entertained on board.But with the discovery of this seabed manganese nodule deposition area, the "Blue Water" crossed the equator countless times a year, and they have forgotten the existence of the equator.

Now that the sun has sunk below the horizon, the Pacific Ocean is eerily calm.Feng Fan has never seen a calm sea, which reminds him of those lakes in the Himalayas, which are so clear that they turn black, like the eyes of the earth.Once, he and two team members peeked at a Tibetan girl taking a bath in the lake, and were chased by some shepherd men with knives at their waists. When they couldn't catch up, they threw stones at them with stone throwers. They had no choice but to surrender. Down.The men approached and looked at them for a while and then left. Feng Fan understood the few Tibetan words they muttered: I have never seen people from outside running so fast in this place.

"Like mountains? Then you grew up in mountains." The captain said.

"No," Feng Fan said, "People who grow up in the mountains generally don't like mountains. They always feel that mountains separate them from the world. I know a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineering guide who has climbed the Pearl 41 times. But every time he stops not far from the peak and watches the mountaineering team who hires him climb to the top. He said that as long as he wants to, he can reach the Pearl within ten hours no matter from the north slope or the south slope. He is not interested in the peak, but he is not interested. The charm of the mountain can be felt from two directions: one is to see the mountain from a distance from the plain, and the other is to stand on the top of the mountain.”

"My home is on the Great Plains of Hebei, and I can see the Taihang Mountains to the west. The gap between my home and the mountains is like the sea, unobstructed. Not long after I was born, my mother took me outside for the first time. At that time, my neck was so stiff that I could support my little head, and I babbled towards the mountain in the west. When I was learning to walk, I always staggered towards the mountain. When I was older, I set off one morning, I walked towards the mountain along the Shitai Railway, and I didn’t turn back until I was hungry at noon, but the mountain still seemed so far away. After going to school, I rode a bicycle to the mountain, and the mountain seemed to follow me backwards, and there was no closer Feeling. After a long time, the distant mountains have become a symbol for me, like those clearly visible but never obtainable things in our lives, which are dreams frozen in the distance.”

"I've been to that area." The captain shook his head and said, "The mountains there are very barren, with only rocks and weeds on them, so you are doomed to be disappointed in the future."

"No, I don't think like you. I just want to climb up, and I don't expect to get anything in the mountain. When I first climbed to the top of the mountain, there was something new in watching the plains that raised me spread out below. a feeling of."

When Feng Fan said this, he found that the captain did not focus on their conversation, but looked up at the sky.A few stars had appeared there. "There," said the captain, pointing his pipe at a spot in the zenith directly above, "there should be no stars there."

But there was a star there, dim and unnoticeable.

"Are you sure?" Feng Fan turned his gaze from the zenith to the captain, "GPS has replaced the sextant long ago, are you sure you are still so familiar with the starry sky?"

"Of course, this is the basic knowledge of the nautical profession...you go on."

Feng Fan nodded, "Later in college, I organized a mountaineering team and climbed several mountains above 7000 meters above sea level, and finally climbed Mount Everest."

The captain looked at Feng Fan, "I guessed right, it really is you! I always thought you looked familiar, did you change your name?"

"Yes, my name was Feng Huabei."

"A few years ago, you attracted a lot of attention. Is what the media said true?"

"Basically. Those four college mountaineers did die because of me anyway."

The captain struck a match and re-lit the extinguished pipe, "I feel that being a mountaineering captain is the same as being an ocean-going captain: the most difficult thing is not to learn to fight, but to learn to give up."

"But if I had given up at that time, it would be very difficult to have another chance in the future. You know mountaineering is a very expensive thing. We are a college student mountaineering team, and it was hard to get sponsorship... because the mountaineering team we hired The guides went on strike and delayed the construction of the No. 900 camp. Then there was a storm forecast, but from the cloud map, the storm had at least [-] hours to go there. We had already built the No. [-] camp at an altitude of [-] meters. Camp No. [-], if you climb to the summit immediately, there should be enough time. Do you think I can give up?"

"The star is getting brighter." The captain looked up again.

"Yeah, it's getting dark."

"It doesn't seem to be because of the darkness... Let's go on."

"You should know the rest. When the storm came, we were on the most dangerous section between 680 meters and 710 meters above sea level. It was a cliff close to [-] degrees. The mountaineering community called it the second step. China At that time, the peak was very close, and the sky was still clear, with only a wisp of cloud misting on one side of the peak. I clearly remember that at that time, I felt that Mount Everest was like a sharp knife, piercing the sky , that wisp of white blood flowed out... Soon everything was invisible, the snow and fog blown up by the storm were so dense, and the four team members were blown off the cliff in one fell swoop, only I was holding on to the rope. But I At that time, my climbing pick was just stuck in the ice crevice, and it was impossible to support the weight of five people. It was probably out of instinct, I cut the climbing rope and let them fall... The remains of two of them have not been found yet."

"It's a question of five dead or four dead."

"Yes, I am also right in terms of the emergency avoidance criteria of mountaineering sports, but I have carried a heavy cross... You are right, the star is not normal, and it is still getting brighter."

"Leave it alone...then your current...situation is related to that experience?"

"Does it need to be said? You also know that the overwhelming condemnation and contempt in the media at that time said that I was irresponsible, that I was a selfish villain who was afraid of death, and sacrificed four companions for my own life... I can at least partially clarify A kind of accusation, so that day I put on climbing clothes, put on sunglasses, followed the drainpipe, and climbed to the top floor of the college library. Just before I jumped down, the instructor came up and said behind me: You are doing this Isn’t it too easy to spare yourself? You are escaping a heavier punishment. I asked him if there is such a punishment? He said of course there is. You find a place farthest from the mountain to live your whole life so that you can never see the mountain. No? So I didn’t jump. Of course, it caused more ridicule, but only I knew that the instructor was right, and that was really a punishment worse than death for me. I regard mountaineering as my life This is why I studied geology. Letting me leave the mountain I am obsessed with forever, coupled with the torture of my conscience, is really a very heavy punishment. So, I found this job after graduation and became an inspector of the "Blue Water" The marine geological engineer of the ship, came to the sea - the place farthest from the mountains."

The captain stared at Feng Fan for a long time, not knowing what to say, and finally decided that the best choice was to get rid of this topic. Fortunately, there was a target to change the topic in the sky above his head, "Look at that star again .”

"Oh my god, it seems to be showing its shape!" Feng Fan exclaimed after looking up.The star is no longer a point, but a small circle.The circle quickly expanded, and in a blink of an eye it became a striking blue ball in the sky.

A sound of hurried footsteps pulled their eyes back to the deck from the sky, and the first officer with earphones on his head hurried over and said to the captain: "We have received news that an alien spaceship is flying towards the earth. You can see it best where you are at the equator. Look, there it is!"

The three looked up.The small ball in the sky was still expanding rapidly, as if blown out of air, and soon swelled to the size of a full moon.

"All the radio stations have interrupted their normal broadcasts to talk about this! That thing has been observed long ago, and it is only now that it is confirmed what it is. It does not answer any inquiries, but judging from its orbit, it must have great power. It is rushing towards the earth at high speed! They say that thing is the size of the moon!"

Looking at it now, the sphere in space is far larger than the size of the moon. It can hold ten moons inside, occupying a considerable part of the sky, which shows that it is much closer to the earth than the moon.The first officer covered his earphones and continued: "They said it stopped, it happened to be in a synchronous orbit at an altitude of [-] kilometers, and it became a synchronous satellite of the earth!"

"Gyrosynchronous satellite? That means it's suspended there?!"

"Yes, on the equator, right above us!"

Feng Fan stared at the sphere in space.It seems to be transparent, filled with blue faint light inside.It was strange that he had the feeling of staring at the sea.He was fascinated by the depth of the sea every time before the bottom sampler came up.Now, the inside of that blue giant ball is so unfathomable, it seems that the lost part of the earth's ocean in ancient times is returning.

"Look, the sea! What's wrong with the sea?!" The captain first broke his gaze away from the hypnotic giant ball, and pointed his pipe at the surface of the sea and screamed.

The line connecting the sea and the sky ahead began to bend, turning into a sinusoidal curve that arched upward.A huge water bag rose from the sea surface, and the water bag rose sharply, as if lifted by an invisible giant from space.

"It's the gravity of the spacecraft's mass! It's pulling up the sea water!" Feng Fan said, he was surprised that he could still think effectively at this time.The mass of the spacecraft is equivalent to that of the moon, and its distance from the earth is only one-tenth of the moon!Fortunately, it is still in the synchronous orbit, and the sea water pulled up by gravity is also still, otherwise the monstrous tide will destroy the world.

Now, the water bag has risen to an indomitable height, and it is in the shape of a huge conical cone. The surface reflects the blue light of the giant ball in the sky, and the light of the setting sun outlines its edge with brilliant blood red.The top of the water bag atomized into a wisp of cloud and mist in the cold high altitude, and the cloud disappeared after a short distance, as if the evening sky had been cut.This scene moved Feng Fan's heart, he remembered...

"Measure its height!" cried the captain.

After 1 minute, someone shouted: "About 100 meters!"

In front of the most terrifying and magnificent spectacle in the history of this earth, everyone seemed to be fixed by a spell. "This is fate..." Feng Fan said dreamily.

"What did you say?!" the captain asked loudly, his eyes still fixed on the water bag.

"I say it's fate."

Yes, it is fate.In order to escape from the mountain, Feng Fan came to the Pacific Ocean, and at the farthest place from the mountain, there unexpectedly appeared a water mountain 200 meters higher than Mount Everest.Now, it is the tallest mountain on earth.

"Five on the left rudder, four forward! Let's run for our lives!" the captain said to the first mate.

"Escape? Is there any danger?" Feng Fan asked puzzled.

"The gravity of the alien spacecraft has created a huge low-pressure area, and a large cyclone is forming. Let me tell you, this may be the largest storm ever recorded, and it may be able to blow the 'Blue Water' into the sky like a leaf !Hopefully we can get out before the cyclone forms."

The first mate motioned for everyone to be quiet, covered the earphones and listened for a while, and said, "Captain, the matter is worse than you think! The radio said that aliens are here to destroy the earth, and they can do it with the huge mass of the spaceship alone." This! What the gravity of the spaceship produces is not an ordinary big storm, but a big leak of the earth's atmosphere!"

"Leak? Leak to what?"

"The gravity of the spacecraft will pull a hole in the earth's atmosphere, just like puncturing a balloon, the air will escape from that hole into space, and the earth's atmosphere will run away!"

"How long will this take?" asked the captain.

"Experts say it only takes a week or so for global atmospheric pressure to drop to lethally low levels. They also say that when pressure drops to a certain point, the oceans will boil. Oh my god, what does that look like...  Now the big cities in all countries are in chaos, people are crazy, they are rushing into hospitals and factories to grab oxygen... Heh, I also said that the space launch base in Cape Canaveral in the United States has crazy crowds rushing in, trying to grab something. Liquid oxygen for rocket launch fuel..."

"One week? That means we don't even have enough time to go home." Said the captain, took out a match, and lit the extinguished pipe again.

"That's right, there's not enough time to go home..." the first mate said blankly.

"If this is the case, we might as well split up and do what we want to do the most," Feng Fan said.He suddenly became excited and felt his blood boil.

"What do you want to do?" asked the captain.

"Mountain climbing."

"Mountain climbing? Climbing... this mountain?!" The first officer asked in surprise, pointing to the high mountain in the sea.

"Yes, it's the highest mountain in the world now. The mountain is there, and of course someone has to climb it."

"How to board?"

“Mountain climbing is of course walking—swimming.”

"Are you crazy?!" the first officer yelled, "Can you swim up a nine-kilometer water slope? The slope looks 45 degrees! It's not the same as climbing a mountain. You have to keep swimming and slip as soon as you let go." down!"

"I want to try."

"Let him go," said the captain. "If we cannot live as we wish at this time, when will we be able to? How far is this from the foot of Water Mountain?"

"Twenty kilometers."

"Go with a lifeboat," the captain said to Feng Fan, "remember to bring more food and water."

"Thank you!"

"Actually, you are very lucky." The captain patted Feng Fan on the shoulder and said.

"I think so too." Feng Fan said, "Captain, there is one more thing I didn't tell you. Among the four college student climbers who died on Mount Everest, there was my lover. The thought that flashed was this: I can't die, there are other mountains."

The captain nodded, "Go."

"Then... what shall we do?" the first mate asked.

"Rush out of the developing storm at full speed and live every day counting."

Feng Fan stood on the lifeboat and watched the "Blue Water" go away.He had planned to spend his life on it.

On the other side, under the giant sphere in space, the high mountain of sea water stands quietly, as if it has been there for billions of years.

The sea was still calm, but Feng Fan felt that the wind was slowly increasing.Air has begun to gather toward the low-pressure area of ​​the seamount.There was a small sail on the lifeboat, and Feng Fan hoisted it.Although the wind was not strong, the direction was facing the seamount, and the boat sailed steadily towards the foot of the mountain.As the wind strengthened, the sails gradually filled up, and the speed of the boat increased rapidly. The bow of the boat cut through the sea like a sharp knife, and the 10-kilometer journey to the foot of the mountain took only four to ten minutes.When he felt that the deck of the lifeboat was tilting on the water slope, Feng Fan jumped into the faint blue sea illuminated by the light of the alien spaceship.

He became the first person to swim and climb a mountain.

Now, the top of the seamount is no longer visible.Feng Fan looked up in the water, and in front of him was an endless slope of sea water with a slope of 45 degrees, as if a giant lifted up the other half of the ocean in front of him.

Feng Fan swam with the most labor-saving breaststroke, remembering what the first officer said.He roughly calculated that it was about [-] kilometers from here to the summit. If it was at sea level, his physical strength would not be a problem to swim so far, but now he is climbing a slope, and if he does not advance, he will retreat. It is almost impossible to reach the summit. is impossible.But Feng Fan does not regret his efforts this time. Being able to climb Mount Everest in sea water can be regarded as fulfilling his mountaineering dream.

At this time, Feng Fan had a strange feeling.He already clearly felt that the slope of the seamount was increasing, and his body tilted more and more upwards with the water surface, but he didn't feel any more strenuous swimming.Looking back, he saw the lifeboat he had discarded at the foot of the mountain.He had lowered the sail before leaving the boat, but at this moment the boat was still firmly on the water slope and did not slide down.He tried to stop swimming, looked around carefully, and found that he did not slide down, but was floating steadily on the slope of the water!Feng Fan hit his head and scolded himself and the first officer as idiots: Since the water in a fluid state on the water slope will not slide down, how could the people and boats on it slide down?
Now Feng Fan knows that the sea and mountains belong to him.

Feng Fan continued upstream, feeling more and more relaxed.The movement of expelling water from the head to take a breath can be easily completed, which is because his body has become lighter.Other signs of reduced gravity began to emerge—Feng Fan’s swimming splashes fell slower, as did waves heaving and traveling on slopes.At this time, the masculine side of the sea disappeared, showing a softness that would not be possible under normal gravity.

As the wind increased, waves began to appear on the water slope.Under low gravity, the height of the waves has increased a lot, and the shape has also changed, becoming as thin as a cicada's wings, rolling up by itself in the slow fall, like an invisible giant planer rolling out exquisitely carved coils on the sea surface. shavings.The waves did not increase the difficulty of Feng Fan's swimming, but pushed him to swim upwards, because the direction of the waves was towards the peak.With the further reduction of gravity, something more wonderful happened: the thin waves no longer pushed Feng Fan, but gently threw him up.For a moment, his body completely left the water, and was immediately caught by the waves in front of him and thrown out again.In this way, he was passed by the gentle and powerful hands of the sea, and he quickly headed towards the peak.He found that the butterfly stroke was most efficient at this time.

The wind continued to increase, and the gravity continued to decrease. The waves on the water slope had exceeded ten meters, but the speed of the ups and downs was even slower.Since the friction between the water in low gravity is not severe, such a huge wave does not make a sound, only the sound of the wind can be heard.Feng Fan, whose body became lighter and lighter, jumped from one wave crest to another.He suddenly discovered that now he spent more time in the air than in the water, and he didn't know whether he was swimming or flying.Several times, thin waves covered him, and he found himself in a tunnel of rolled water.Above him, a thin film of waves rolled slowly, soaking in the blue light of the giant ball.Through the wave film, you can see the alien spacecraft in space.The giant ball deformed and shook behind the wave film, as if looking at it with teary eyes.

Feng Fan looked at the waterproof watch on his left wrist and found that he had "climbed" for an hour.At such an unexpected speed, it will take at most this long to reach the summit.

Feng Fan suddenly thought of the "Blue Water".Judging from the current speed of wind growth, a large cyclone will soon form, and the "Blue Water" will not be able to escape the super storm anyway.He suddenly realized that the captain had made a fatal mistake: he should have sailed straight to the high mountains of the sea.Since the weight of gravity on the water slope does not exist, it will be as easy for the "Blue Water" to climb to the summit as it is on a flat sea, and the summit is the eye of the storm, which is calm!Thinking of this, Feng Fan hurriedly took out the walkie-talkie on his life jacket, but no one answered his call.

Feng Fan has mastered the technique of leaping on top of waves.He jumped from one wave crest to another, and "climbed" for about 10 minutes, and had gone two-thirds of the way.The round peak seemed not far away, softly shining in the light from the alien spaceship, like a new planet waiting for him.At this time, the whistling wind suddenly turned into a terrifying scream, and the sound came from all directions.The wind suddenly increased, and the 30-meter-high thin waves were torn apart by the hurricane in mid-air before they had time to fall.Feng Fan raised his eyes and saw that the water slope was covered with torn wave crests, like a mess of hair dancing wildly in the wind, emitting a dazzling white light under the illumination of the giant ball.

Feng Fan made the last leap.He was sent into the air by a thin wave nearly 30 meters high, and that wave was shattered by the gust of wind the moment he left.He fell slowly towards a row of huge waves ahead, and the row of waves slowly opened up like transparent giant wings, as if to welcome him.The moment Feng Fan's hand came into contact with the rising waves, the crystal giant film shattered in the strong wind and turned into a snow-white mist.When the wave film shattered, there was a strange sound that looked like a loud laugh.At the same time, Feng Fan's light body no longer fell, but was farther and farther away from the crazy sea, and was blown into the air by the strong wind like a feather.

Feng Fan was rolling in the air current under low gravity.In his dizziness, he only felt that the giant glowing ball in space was revolving around him.When he was finally able to initially stabilize his body, he found himself hovering above the peak of the seawater mountain!The rows of huge waves on the surface of the water mountain look like long curves from this height, indicating that the whirlwind converges on the top of the mountain in a spiral shape.The circle Feng Fan circled in the air was getting smaller and smaller, and the speed was getting faster and faster.He is being blown towards the center of the cyclone.

When Feng Fan floated into the eye of the storm, the wind suddenly weakened, and the invisible hand of the airflow holding him was released. Feng Fan fell towards the peak of the seawater high mountain, and plunged into the faint blue sea water in the middle of the peak. .

Feng Fan sank in the water, and after a while he began to float up, when the surroundings were already very dark.When the panic of suffocation appeared, Feng Fan suddenly realized the danger he was facing: his last breath before entering the water was inhaled at an altitude of nearly [-] meters, with very little oxygen. The floating speed is very slow. Even if I try my best to swim faster, the air in my lungs may not be able to support me to float to the surface.A familiar feeling came over him, as if he had returned to the black snow dust rolled up by the storm on Mount Everest, and the fear of death overwhelmed everything.At this moment, he found that there were several silver balls floating up with him, the largest one was about one meter in diameter.Feng Fan suddenly understood that these things were bubbles!Very large air bubbles are possible in seawater at low gravity.He swam to the largest bubble, stretched his head through the silver bubble wall, and was able to breathe smoothly immediately!When the hypoxic dizziness subsided, he found himself in a spherical space, which was once again a space surrounded by water.Through the rounded tops of the bubbles, you can see the sparkling surface of the deformed sea.During the ascent, as the water pressure decreased, the bubbles grew rapidly, and the circular space above his head opened up. He felt that he was ascending into the sky in a crystal balloon.The blue wave light above became brighter and brighter, and finally reached a dazzling level.With a soft pop, the big bubble burst, and Feng Fan rose to the surface of the sea.In low gravity, he rushed to the surface of the water nearly a meter high, and then slowly fell back down.

The first thing Feng Fan saw was the countless beautiful water polo falling slowly around him.Water polo vary in size, the largest being the size of a football.These water balls reflect the blue light of the giant balls in the sky, and when you look closely, there are many layers inside, making them appear crystal clear.It's all water splashed by Feng Fan when he hits the surface, in low gravity, formed into a ball due to surface tension.He reached out to catch one, and when the water balloon shattered it made a crisp metallic sound that could not have been made by water.

The summit of the seamount is very calm, and the waves from all directions cancel each other out here, leaving only a broken wave.This is clearly the center of the storm, the only place of calm in this manic world.This calm was set against another great roar, that of the whirlwind.Feng Fan looked up and found that he and Haishan were in a huge well. The wall of the giant well was made of water mist rolled up by the cyclone. The thick water mist slowly swirled around the seamount and extended to the sky.The wellhead of the giant well is an alien spacecraft, which is like a big lamp in space, casting blue light into the well.Feng Fan found that there was a strange cloud around the giant ball, which was in the shape of a thread, like a loose silk net.They looked so bright, as if they were emitting their own light.Feng Fan guessed that it might be an ice crystal cloud produced by the atmosphere leaking into space.They appear to surround the alien spacecraft, but are actually more than 3 kilometers away from it.If so, the leaking of Earth's atmosphere has already begun.This huge well formed by a large whirlwind is the fatal loophole.

No matter what, Feng Fan thought, I made it to the top.

Summit Dialogue
The surrounding light suddenly flickered and dimmed.Feng Fan looked up and saw that the blue light from the alien spaceship disappeared.Only then did he understand the meaning of the blue light: it was just the bright light of a display screen when it was empty, and the surface of the giant ball was a display screen.Now, an image appeared on the surface of the giant sphere. The image was taken from the sky. It was a person floating on the sea looking up. That person was Feng Fan himself.After half a minute or so, the image disappeared.Feng Fan understood the meaning of the image—the aliens were simply saying that they saw themselves.At this time, Feng Fan really felt that he was standing on the top of the world.

Two rows of words appeared on the screen, all in different languages. Feng Fan only recognized "ENGLISH" in English, "Chinese" in Chinese and "日本语" in Japanese. The corresponding language indicated in the text.There is a dark frame moving quickly between words, Feng Fan thinks this scene is very familiar.His guess was soon confirmed - he found that the movement of the dark frame was actually controlled by his gaze!He fixed his eyes on "Chinese", and the dark frame stopped there.He blinked, but nothing happened.It should be double-clicked, he thought, blinked twice, the dark frame flashed, the language selection menu on the giant ball disappeared, and a large line of Chinese appeared:

Hello there!

"Hello!" Feng Fan shouted to the sky, "Can you hear me?!"

You can hear it, you don't have to be so loud, we can even hear the sound of a mosquito on the earth.We have learned these languages ​​from the airwaves leaking from your planet and would like to have a casual chat with you.

"Where are you from?"

A static image appeared on the surface of the giant sphere, which was composed of dense black dots. These black dots were connected by complex thin lines to form a dazzling large net, which was clearly a star map.Sure enough, one of the black dots emitted a silver light, getting brighter and brighter.Feng Fan didn't understand anything, but he believed that this image must have been recorded, and astronomers on Earth should be able to understand it.Text appeared on the giant ball again, and the star map did not disappear, but became the background of the text, or the desktop.

We built a mountain and you climbed it.

"I like mountain climbing." Feng Fan said.

It's not a matter of liking it or not, we have to climb the mountain.

"Why? Are there many mountains in your world?" Feng Fan asked.He knew that this was obviously not a topic that humans were eager to talk about at the moment, but he wanted to talk about it.Since everyone around him thought the climber was a fool, he had no choice but to communicate with the aliens who claimed that he had to climb the mountain.He earned it all for himself.

Mountains are everywhere, but the climbing method is different.

Feng Fan didn't know whether this sentence was a philosophical metaphor or a realistic description, so he could only answer stupidly: "Then there are still many mountains in your place."

For us, there are mountains all around, it closes us, and we have to dig holes to climb the mountains.

Feng Fan was confused by these words, he thought for a long time but couldn't figure out what was going on.

bubble world

The alien continued: Our world is very simple, it is a spherical space.Measured in your units of length, the radius is approximately three thousand kilometers.This space is surrounded by rock formations, and if you walk in any direction, you will encounter a dense rock wall.

Our first universe model was established naturally: the universe is composed of two parts, one is the spherical space with a radius of [-] kilometers in which we live; the other is the rock formations surrounding this space, which extend infinitely in all directions .So, our world is just a bubble in this solid universe, and we call it the bubble world.This theory of the universe is called a compact cosmology.Of course, the theory doesn't rule out the possibility that there are other cavities in the infinite rock formation, nearer or farther away.This became the driving force for our future exploration.

"However, it is impossible for an infinitely thick rock layer to exist, and it will collapse under gravity."

We didn't know about gravity at that time, there was no gravity in Bubble World, and we lived in a state of weightlessness.The real awareness of the existence of gravity is tens of thousands of years later.

"Then these voids are equivalent to the planets in the solid universe? It's really interesting. The density distribution of your universe is exactly the opposite of that of the real universe, like a negative of the real universe."

real universe?This is very shallow, and can only be said to be the known universe.You don't know what the real universe looks like, and neither do we.

"Is there sunlight, air and water there?"

None, and we don't need any.There are only solids in our world, no gases and liquids.

"How can there be life without gases and liquids?"

We are mechanical life, our muscles and bones are made of metal, our brain is an ultra-highly integrated chip, and our blood is current and magnetic field.We feed on the radioactive rocks in the Earth's core and survive on the energy it provides.No one made us, it all evolved naturally, from the simplest single-cell machinery, from the accidental formation of PN junctions on rocks exposed to radioactivity [1].Electromagnetic energy was first discovered and used by our primitive ancestors. As for what you call fire, we have never discovered it.

"It must be dark in there?"

There is some bright light, which is produced by radioactive substances on the rock wall, and that rock wall is our sky.The light is weak and erratic on the rock face, but that's how we evolved our eyes.The void is weightless, and our cities are suspended in that dim space. Their size is about the same as your cities, and they look like clusters of glowing clouds from a distance.The evolution time of mechanical life is much longer than that of your carbon-based life, but we have reached the same goal by different routes, and we have all reached the day when we think about the universe.

"However, this universe is really aggrieved."

Hold...that's a new word.Therefore, our longing for the vast space is stronger than yours.As early as the ancient times in the bubble world, the exploration into the depths of the rock formations began.Explorers tunneled through rock formations in an attempt to discover other voids in the solid universe.

There are many wonderful myths about these imaginary vacuoles.Fantasies of other vacuoles in the distance make up the bulk of vacuo world literature.But this kind of exploration was initially forbidden, and offenders would be short-circuited to death.

"Is it forbidden by the church?"

No, there is no church.A civilization that cannot see the sun and the starry sky cannot produce religion.The senate banned tunnel exploration for very practical reasons: we don't have your nearly infinite space, and our living space has a radius of only three thousand kilometers.The broken rock dug out of the tunnel will accumulate in the cavity. Since it is believed that there is an infinitely thick rock formation, the tunnel may be dug very long, and the broken rock dug out will eventually fill the cavity!In other words, it is to transform the spherical space of the empty bubble into a long tunnel space.

"There seems to be a solution: put the excavated rock in the tunnel that has been dug later, leaving only room for the explorers to stay."

This is indeed how the later expeditions went.The space where explorers live is actually a small moving cavity, which we call a bubble boat.But even so, there is still a pile of gravel equivalent to the space of the bubble ship entering the cavity, and only when the bubble ship returns can this pile of gravel be refilled back into the rock wall.If the bubble boat never returns, then the empty space occupied by this small pile of rubble cannot be recovered, which is equivalent to the small space being stolen by the bubble boat, so explorers are also called space thieves.For that small world, such a little space is precious.Over time, with the departure of bubble boats, the occupied space will also be huge.Therefore, bubble boat expeditions were also forbidden in ancient times.At the same time, the bubble boat adventure is a very difficult and dangerous activity.There are several diggers and a navigator in a general bubble boat. At that time, there was no boring machine. Moving through the rock formations at an extremely slow pace.To work like a machine in a small hole that can only accommodate you, and to pursue the faint hope in the claustrophobia, undoubtedly requires great spiritual strength.Since the bubble boat usually returns along the path that has been loosened, it is relatively easy, but the gambler's desire to discover often drives the explorer to cross the safe turning point and continue forward.At this time, the return physical strength and supplies are not enough, and the bubble boat will run aground on the return journey, becoming the grave of explorers.Despite this, Bubble World's explorations to the outside world have never stopped.

Hubble redshift
One day in 33281 of the Pao Era (this is imitating the earth's chronology, Pao World's own chronology is very weird, you can't understand), a small hole suddenly appeared in the sky of the Pao World's rock formation, and a flying bird flew out of the hole. Piles of rubble floated in the air, twinkling like stars in the twilight of radioactive material.A group of soldiers from Central City immediately flew towards the small hole (remember, bubble world has no gravity) and found that it was a returning expedition bubble ship.It set off eight years ago, and no one thought it would come back.This bubble ship is called "Needle Point", and it has advanced [-] kilometers in the rock formation, setting a record for the distance traveled back to the bubble ship. The Needlepoint had a crew of twenty when it set out, but when it returned there was only one scientist on board, let's call him Copernicus.The rest of the ship, including the captain, was eaten by Copernicus as food.In fact, this way of using the crew as supplies was the most efficient way of sailing in early strata exploration.

Copernicus, who committed the crime of cannibalism, was to be executed in the capital of the world, in accordance with the law that strictly forbids bubble-boat expeditions.On this day, tens of 10 people gathered in the central square where the execution took place, waiting to watch the wonderful electric spark when Copernicus was short-circuited.But at this moment, a group of scientists from the World Academy of Sciences floated over and announced a major discovery of theirs: According to the rock specimens brought back by the "Needle Point" at various sections along the way, the scientists discovered that the density of the rocks in the formation actually increases with the Decreases with increasing voyage distance!

"Your world has no gravity, how do you measure density?"

By inertia, it's a little more complicated than your method.Scientists initially thought that this was simply due to Needlepoint accidentally entering an area of ​​uneven formation.But in the following century, in different directions, multiple bubble ships traveled farther than the Needlepoint to penetrate deeper into the formation and return, bringing back rock samples.People were shocked to find that the formation density in all directions decreased outwards, and the rate of decrease was basically the same!This discovery shakes the dense cosmology that has ruled the bubble world for more than 2 years.If the density of universe is decreasing outwards with the bubble world as the core, then there is always the distance for the density to decrease to zero.According to the measured decline rate, the scientists can easily calculate that this distance is about [-] kilometers.

"Hey, this looks a lot like our Hubble Redshift[2]!"

It is very similar.You can't imagine that the receding speed of galaxies can be greater than the speed of light, so the galaxies whose receding speed is close to the speed of light are defined as the edge of the visible universe.However, our ancestors easily knew that the state of zero density is space, so a new model of the universe was born.In this model, from the bubble world to the outside, the density of the universe decreases gradually, until it fades into the space, and this space continues to infinity.This theory is known as space cosmology.

The compact cosmology is stubborn, and its dominant proponents have introduced a patched compact cosmology, arguing that the decrease in density is simply due to a looser spherical layer wrapped around the bubble world, through which the , the decrease in density stops.They even calculated that the thickness of this loose spherical layer is [-] kilometers.In fact, it is not difficult to prove or falsify this theory, as long as a bubble boat passes through a rock formation of [-] kilometers.In fact, this voyage distance was reached very quickly, but the decreasing trend of formation density continued.Therefore, the proponents of the dense cosmology said that the previous calculation was wrong, and the thickness of the loose spherical layer should be [-] kilometers.Ten years later, this distance has also been breached, and the density decline continues, and the decline rate tends to increase.The Tensemen then increased the thickness of the puffy ball layer to [-] kilometers...

Later, an epoch-making great discovery sent the compact cosmology to the grave forever.

gravity
The bubble ship that penetrated [-] kilometers into the rock formation is called "Yuandao". It is the largest exploration bubble ship in history, equipped with a high-power excavator and a complete survival support system, so the distance it sails to the depths of the formation is unprecedented. record.

When reaching a depth (or altitude) of [-] kilometers, the chief scientist on the ship (let’s call him Newton) reflected an incredible thing to the captain: when the crew members were suspended in the middle of the bubble ship to sleep, they always woke up Lie on the wall of the cave facing the bubble world.

The captain said disapprovingly: "It's just homesickness and sleepwalking."They want to go home, so they always move in the direction of home in their sleep.

But there is no air in the bubble boat, just like the bubble world. If you want to move your body, there are only two ways: one is to step on the wall of the boat, which is impossible when sleeping in the air; things as drives, but Newton found no such signs.

The captain still didn't take Newton's words seriously, but this negligence nearly got him buried alive himself.On this day, the forward excavation came to an end. Due to the fatigue of the crew, the excavated pile of broken rocks was not transported to the bottom of the ship immediately, so everyone rested and wanted to wait until they woke up before transporting.Like everyone else, the captain slept suspended in the middle of the ship, but when he woke up, he found himself buried in the rock together with other crew members!It turned out that when they were sleeping, the broken rocks at the bow of the ship moved with them to the bottom of the ship in the direction of Pao World!Newton soon discovered that all the objects in the cabin tended to move towards the bubble world, but they moved too slowly to be noticed at ordinary times.

"And so Newton discovered gravity without the help of an apple!"

How can it be so easy? !But in the history of our science, the birth of the theory of universal gravitation is much more difficult than yours, which is determined by our environment.When Newton discovered the directional movement of objects in the ship, he took it for granted that the gravitational force came from the space with a radius of [-] kilometers in the bubble world.As a result, the early gravitational theory had a ridiculous fallacy: it was believed that it was not mass that produced gravity, but space.

"I can imagine that in such a complex physical environment, your Newton's thinking is much more complicated than our Newton's."

Yes, it was not until half a century later that scientists cleared away the fog, truly recognized the essence of gravity, and measured the constant of gravitation with instruments similar to yours.It has also gone through a long process for the theory of gravity to be recognized, but once the existence of gravity is realized, the compact cosmology is over, and gravity does not allow the existence of an infinite solid universe.

After space cosmology was finally recognized, the universe it described had a great allure for bubble world.In the bubble world, besides energy and mass, the conserved physical quantities also have space.The space radius of Bubble World is only [-] kilometers. Digging holes in the rock formations cannot increase the space, but only change the position and shape of the space.At the same time, due to the weightlessness, the earth core civilization is suspended in the space, rather than attached to the cave wall (equivalent to your land), so in Pao World, space is the most precious thing.The entire history of world civilization is a bloody history of space competition.And now I am shocked to hear that the space may be infinite, how can it not be exciting!Thus, there has been an unprecedented wave of exploration since then, with a large number of bubble ships advancing outward through the formation, trying to pass through the [-]-kilometer rock formation predicted by space cosmology to reach the zero-density paradise.

core world
Having said that, if you are smart enough, you should be able to deduce the truth of the bubble world.

"Is your world located in the center of a planet?"

Correct, our planet is about the size of Earth, with a radius of about eight thousand kilometers.But the core of this planet is empty, and the radius of the empty core is about [-] kilometers.We are creatures in the core of the earth.

However, after the discovery of gravity, it will be many centuries before we finally understand the truth of our own world.

strata war
After the establishment of space cosmology, the first cost of pursuing the infinite space outside is to consume the limited space of Bubble World.Numerous bubble boats discharge a large amount of broken rocks into the earth's core space, and these broken rocks are suspended around the city, densely packed and boundless, making it impossible for the city, which could have drifted freely, to move, because once the city moves, it will encounter a devastating dense explosion. Stone rain.At least half of the space occupied by broken rocks will never be recovered.

At this time, the Senate has been replaced by the world government.As the administrator and defender of Earth's core space, the government severely suppressed crazy bubble-boat expeditions.However, this kind of suppression was not very efficient at first, because when it was learned that the expedition took place, the bubble ship had already penetrated deep into the formation.So the government quickly realized that the best tool to stop bubble boats is bubble boats.As a result, the government began to build a huge fleet of bubble ships, go deep into the rock formations to intercept the expedition bubble ships, and recover the space stolen by them.This interception was naturally resisted by the expedition ship, so a protracted war broke out in the formation.

"This kind of war is really interesting!"

It's also brutal.First of all, the pace of stratum warfare is very slow, because with the excavation technology of that era, the speed of bubble ships in the stratum is generally only about three kilometers per hour.Stratum warfare advocates giant ship doctrine, because the larger the bubble ship, the stronger the endurance and the stronger the attack power.But no matter how big the formation warship is, its cross section should be as small as possible, so that the excavation section can be minimized to increase the navigation speed.Therefore, the cross-section of all bubble boats is the same, and the size only depends on its length.The shape of a large battleship is a long tunnel.Since the stratigraphic battlefield is three-dimensional, it is fought in a manner similar to your aerial combat, but far more complex.When a warship touches an enemy ship to launch an attack, it first needs to quickly expand the cross-section of the bow to increase the attack area. At this time, the attack ship becomes the shape of a nail.When necessary, the bow of the bubble ship can also form multiple branches, like an open claw, attacking the enemy ship from multiple directions.The complexity of ground warfare is also manifested in: each warship can be decomposed into many small ships at will, and multiple warships can be quickly combined into a giant ship.Therefore, when two hostile fleets meet, whether to disassemble or combine is a deep tactical knowledge.

Stratum warfare is not only negative for future exploration.In fact, spurred by the war, the Pao world underwent a technological revolution.In addition to efficient tunneling machines, the seismograph was invented, which can be used both for communication in the ground and for radar detection, and powerful shock waves can also be used as weapons.The most sophisticated shockwave communication devices can even transmit images.

The largest battleship ever to appear in the strata is the "Line World", which was built by the World Government.When it is in the normal navigation section, the "Line World" has a length of 150 kilometers. As the name of the ship indicates, it is equivalent to a long small world.Being in it, you have the feeling of being in your British-French Channel Tunnel.Every few minutes, a high-speed train passes through the tunnel. This is a special train that transports excavated gravel to the stern of the ship. The Line World can certainly be broken down into a large fleet, but it sails as a whole most of the time. The "Line World" is not always in a straight line. When maneuvering, its long hull tunnel can form a group of self-penetrating or intersecting, very complicated curves. "Line World" has the most advanced tunneling machine, its cruising speed is twice that of ordinary bubble ships, reaching six kilometers per hour, and its combat speed can exceed ten kilometers per hour!It also has an ultra-high-power shock wave radar, which can accurately locate a bubble ship 1000 kilometers away.Its shock wave weapon can smash everything in the target bubble ship at a distance of [-] meters.This super giant gallops freely and horizontally in the vast stratum, invincible, wiped out a large number of exploration bubble ships, and returns the annexed exploration bubble space to the bubble world every once in a while.

Under the devastating blow of the "Line World", Pao World's outward exploration was once on the verge of stagnation.In stratum warfare, explorers are always at a disadvantage. They cannot build or combine warships longer than ten kilometers, because such targets in the stratum are easily detected and located by the radar on the "Line World" or in the bubble world base. was quickly wiped out.However, in order to continue the expedition, the "Line World" must be eliminated.After a long period of planning, the Expedition Alliance assembled more than 100 ground warships to encircle and destroy the "Line World". The longest of these warships is only five kilometers.The battle started [-] kilometers away from the Pao world, known as the "Battle of [-] kilometers" in history.

The Adventure Alliance first mobilized 150 warships to form a giant ship with a length of 200 kilometers at a distance of [-] kilometers, luring the "Line World" to attack.When the "Line World" approached the bait and rushed towards the target in a straight line at high speed, hundreds of warships ambushed by the Expedition Alliance attacked at the same time in a direction perpendicular to the "Line World" and sent the [-]-kilometer-long giant ship Cut into fifty paragraphs. The [-] warships that were split off after the "Line World" was truncated still had strong combat effectiveness. More than [-] warships from both sides fought together, and a tragic melee broke out in the stratum.The battleship space is constantly combining and dividing, gradually becoming indistinguishable from each other.In the final stage of the battle, the battlefield with a radius of [-] kilometers has become a honeycomb. In this intricate three-dimensional labyrinth at a depth of [-] kilometers below the planet, fierce battles are everywhere.In this position, the gravity of the planet is already obvious, and compared with the government army, explorers are more familiar with the gravity environment.In the grand street battle in the maze, this weak advantage gradually played a decisive role, and the Adventure Alliance won the final victory.

海

After the battle, the Expedition Alliance merged all the spaces on the battlefield into one, forming a spherical space with a radius of fifty kilometers.In this space, the League of Adventures announced its independence from Bubble World.After independence, the Expedition Alliance echoed the adventure movement of the Bubble World. Expedition bubble ships continued to come to the Alliance from the core of the earth. The space they brought made the size of the Alliance territory continuously increase. Explorers were able to travel [-] kilometers. Altitude gained a forward base.The Pao World Government, which was exhausted by the long war, could no longer stop it, so it had to recognize the legitimacy of the expedition.

As the height increases, the density of the ground gradually decreases, making the excavation easier.In addition, the increased gravity also makes the handling of crushed rock more convenient.Subsequent expeditions went much smoother.In the eighth year after the war, an expedition ship named "Spiral" completed the remaining [-] kilometers of voyage, and arrived at a distance of [-] kilometers from the center of the world, that is, from the center of the planet. , [-] kilometers from the edge of the bubble world.

"Wow, that's getting to the surface of the planet! You guys got to see the great plains and the real mountains, that's so exciting!"

Nothing to get excited about, the Helix has reached the bottom of the ocean.

"..."

At that time, the image of the shock wave communication instrument disappeared after shaking a few times, and the communication was completely interrupted.Other bubble boats at a lower altitude heard a sound, and the sound converted into your air is a bang, which is the sound of high-pressure seawater pouring into the space of the "Spiral" in an instant.The mechanical life in the bubble world and the instruments and equipment on the ship must never come into contact with water. The strong current generated by the short circuit quickly vaporized the seawater that penetrated into the human body and the inside of the machine. The crew and equipment of the "Spiral" were like It exploded like a bomb.

Then, the alliance sent more than a dozen expedition ships in different directions, but they all encountered the same thing at the same altitude.Except for the mysterious bang, no more information was sent back.On two occasions, I saw weird crystalline fluctuations on the monitor screen, but had no idea what they were.The radar shock wave sent upward by the following bubble ship also returned a completely incomprehensible echo, which showed that the upper part was neither a space nor a rock formation.

For a while, space cosmology was shaken, and the academic circles began to talk about a new universe model.The new theory determined the radius of the universe to be [-] kilometers, and believed that those disappearing explorers touched the edge of the universe and sank into nothingness.

Adventure sports face a serious test.In the past, the space occupied by the non-returning expedition bubble ships could theoretically be recovered, but now, once the bubble ships touch the edge of the universe, their space is lost forever.At this point, even the most steadfast explorers are shaken, because in the world in this stratum, the space is non-renewable.The alliance decided to send the last five expedition ships to rise at a very slow speed when approaching the edge of the universe at 5000 meters. If the same accident occurs, the expedition will be suspended.

After losing two more bubbleships, the third ship, the Yannao, made a breakthrough. The "Yannao" cautiously dug upwards at an extremely slow speed. When approaching the bottom of the sea, the seawater did not rush in instantly as before when the rock formation that collapsed the top of the ship, but sprayed in as a high-pressure jet through a narrow gap in the rock formation. . The "Yannao" is 250 meters long in the cross-section, and it is relatively large among the high-level exploration ships. It took nearly an hour for the seawater jetted in to fill the space of the ship.Before hitting the water and bursting, the ship's seismic instrument recorded the shape of the sea water and sent the data and images back to the alliance in its entirety.In this way, the core man saw liquid for the first time.

There may have been liquid in the ancient times of Bubble World, which was hot magma.Later, the geology of the planet stabilized, the magma solidified, and there was only solid matter in the core.Some scientists have theoretically predicted the existence of liquid, but no one believes that there is such a mythical substance in the universe.Now, from the images sent back, people have seen the liquid with their own eyes.They looked at the white jet in shock, watched the water surface slowly rise in the space inside the ship, watched this devilish substance that seemed to violate all laws of physics adapt to any shape of its attachment, seeping into every tiniest gap .The rock surface seemed to change its nature when it came into contact with it, becoming darker and more reflective.What intrigued them most was that while most objects would sink into this substance, some exploded human and machine fragments could float to the surface!And the nature of these fragments is indistinguishable from those that sank.The core people gave this liquid substance a name called "invisible rock".

Subsequent explorations will be relatively smooth.Engineers at the League of Explorers have designed something called a "guide tube."This is a 200-meter-long hollow drill pipe. After drilling through the rock formation, the drill bit can be opened like a cover to introduce seawater into the pipe. There is a valve at the bottom of the pipe.After the bubble ship carrying the guide pipe and the drilling rig rose to a position 5000 meters above the seabed, the guide pipe smoothly drilled through the rock formation and extended into the seabed.Drilling is, after all, the technology with which the people in the core are most familiar, but another technology they know nothing about is sealing.Since there are no liquids and gases in the bubble world, there is no sealing technology.The valve at the bottom of the introduction pipe was not tight enough, and the seawater had already leaked out if the valve was not opened.

It turned out to be a kind of luck afterwards, because if the valve is fully opened, the kinetic energy of the high-pressure seawater rushing in will be much greater than the last jet, and that high-pressure jet will cut everything it encounters like a laser.The infiltration of water from the closed valve is now manageable.You can imagine how shocked the explorers in the boat were when they saw the thin sea water spraying out in front of their eyes.

They were then as ignorant of liquids as your primitives were of electric currents.After carefully filling a bucket of water with a metal container, the bubble boat descends to bury the lead pipe in the rock formation.During the descent, the explorers carefully guarded the bucket of seawater as a research specimen, and soon made a new discovery: the invisible rock is actually transparent!They didn't see this because the sand had been mixed with seawater seeping through the cracks from the last time.As the depth of the bubble boat descended, the temperature also increased. The explorers were horrified to see that the invisible rock was actually a living body!It was coming to life, its surface writhing angrily, presenting a terrifying form made up of countless bubbles.But the monster was consuming itself while showing its vitality, turning into a ghostly white shadow and disappearing into the air.When the invisible rocks in the barrel turned into white phantoms and disappeared, the explorers in the cabin felt abnormal one after another.Short-circuited electric sparks flickered in their bodies, and finally they all turned into a ball of fireworks and died in pain.People in the alliance base saw this terrible scene through the shock wave images sent back by the monitors, but the monitors also short-circuited and shut down soon.The bubble boat that went to pick it up also suffered the same fate. After docking with the falling bubble boat, the occupants in the pick-up bubble boat also died of a short circuit, as if the invisible rock had turned into a kind of death that filled all space.But the scientists also found that the short circuit this time was not as severe as the previous one, and they concluded that as the volume of space increases, the density of the invisible god of death also decreases.Next, after paying more lives, the core people finally discovered a form of matter they had never touched: gas.

星空
This series of major discoveries finally moved the Pao World Government to unite with the former enemies and devote themselves to the cause of exploration.For a while, investment in exploration increased sharply, and the final breakthrough was just around the corner.

Although there is more and more understanding of the nature of water vapor, geonuclear scientists who lack sealing technology cannot avoid its damage to the lives of people in the earth's core and equipment.However, they already know that in the interval within 500 meters from the seabed, the invisible rock is dead and will not boil.Therefore, the Earth Core Government and the Expedition Alliance jointly built a laboratory 800 meters away from the seabed, equipped with longer and better-performing guide tubes, and specialized in the research of invisible rocks.

"Until then, you're not doing Archimedes' work."

Yes, but don't forget that we did Faraday's work in primitive times.

In the invisible rock laboratory, scientists successively discovered the laws of water pressure and buoyancy, and at the same time, the sealing technology related to liquids was also developed and perfected.People finally discovered that navigating in the invisible rock is actually a very simple matter, much easier than navigating in the formation.As long as the sealing and pressure resistance of the hull meet the requirements, the ship can rise at an unimaginable speed in the invisible rock without any excavation.

"This is the rocket that bubbles the world."

Should be called "Water Arrow".Water Arrow is an egg-shaped high-pressure metal container without any power facilities. It can only accommodate one explorer inside. Let's call him Gagarin who soaks the world.The launching platform of the water arrow is located 5000 meters above the seabed, and it is a spacious hall dug out of the ground.An hour before launch, Gagarin entered the water arrow and closed the airtight hatch.After confirming that all instruments and life support systems were normal, the automatic tunneling machine destroyed the thin rock layer at the top of the hall, which was less than ten meters thick. With a bang, the rock layer collapsed under the huge pressure of the invisible rock above, and the water arrow submerged in the invisible rock in the deep sea. among the rocks.After the surrounding dust settled, Gagarin looked through the transparent porthole made of diamond, and was surprised to find that the two searchlights on the launching platform shot two beams of light in the invisible rock. Since there is no air in the bubble world, the light will not Scattering, when the core man first saw the shape of light.The launch order came from the shock meter, and Gagarin pulled the handle, releasing the hinges that fastened the anchor of the water arrow to the rock formation at the bottom.The water arrow slowly rose from the bottom of the sea, accelerated rapidly in the invisible rock, and floated upwards.

Based on the seabed pressure, the scientists easily calculated the thickness of the invisible rock above, which is about 15 meters.If there is no accident, the floating water arrow can complete this voyage within [-] minutes, but no one knows what will happen in the future.

The water arrow rose in the silence, and looking through the porthole, there was only bottomless darkness.Occasionally, a few grains of dust suspended in the invisible rock would fly quickly in the light from the porthole, marking the rising speed of the water arrow.

Gagarin quickly panicked.He is a being living in a solid world, and now entering the space of the invisible rock for the first time, a feeling of helplessness and nothingness seized him. The 15-minute voyage is so long, it seems to condense the 10-year exploration process of the earth's core civilization, which is endless... Just when Gagarin's spirit was about to collapse, the water arrow floated on the surface of the planet's sea.

The upward inertia caused the water arrow to rush into the air more than ten meters above the sea.In the process of falling, Gagarin saw the endless and sparkling surface of the invisible rock below from the porthole, but he had no time to think about where the light reflected from the surface came from.The water arrow landed heavily on the surface of the sea, splashing invisible rocks and white flowers all over the surroundings, and the water arrow floated smoothly on the sea surface like a boat, gently undulating with the waves.

Gagarin opened the hatch carefully, leaned out slowly, and immediately felt the sea breeze blowing.It was a while before he realized it was gas.Fear made him shudder.He had seen the flow of water vapor in a diamond pipe in the laboratory, but such a huge amount of gas existed in the universe, which was beyond anyone's expectation.Gagarin soon discovered that this gas, unlike the one transformed by the boiling of the invisible rock, would not cause a short circuit in the body.He described it in his later memoirs:

I feel that this is the gentle touch of an invisible giant hand, which comes from an infinitely huge existence that we don't know. In front of this existence, I have become another brand new me.

Gagarin looked up, at this time, the 10-year exploration of the earth's core civilization got the final reward.

He saw the brilliant starry sky.

mountains are everywhere

"It's really not easy. You have gone through such a long time of exploration to stand on our starting point!" Feng Fan praised.

So, you are a very lucky civilization.

At this time, the area of ​​the ice crystal cloud formed by the atmosphere that escaped into space expanded a lot, the sky was brightly lit, and the light of the alien spaceship scattered a brilliant rainbow in the ice crystal cloud.Below, the giant well formed by the cyclone is still rumbling, like a super machine crushing the planet bit by bit.But the surrounding hilltops were even calmer, with no breaking waves.The surface of the sea is like a mirror, which reminds Feng Fan of the alpine lakes in northern Tibet... Feng Fan forced himself to bring his thoughts back to reality.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

We just passed by and saw that there is a wise civilization here, so we wanted to talk to someone.We'll talk to whoever gets to the top of this mountain first.

"Where the mountain is, someone will climb it."

Yes, mountain climbing is the nature of intelligent creatures. They all want to stand higher and see farther. This is not a need for survival.For example, if you want to survive, you will flee from this mountain far away, but you have climbed up.There is a deeper reason why evolution has endowed intelligent civilizations with the desire to ascend, and we don't know what the reason is.Mountains are everywhere, and we are all still at the foot of them.

"I'm on the top of the mountain." Feng Fan said.He would not let anyone challenge his honor of climbing the world's highest mountain, not even aliens.

You are at the foot of the mountain, we are all at the foot of the mountain.The speed of light is the foot of a mountain, and space is the foot of a mountain. Being imprisoned in the narrow valley between the speed of light and space, don't you feel... aggrieved?

"Born like this, get used to it."

Well, what I'm going to say next will be very unaccustomed to you.Look at this universe, what do you feel?
"Bigness, infinity, things like that."

Don't you feel aggrieved?
"How could it be? The universe is infinite in my eyes, but it seems to be 200 billion light-years in the eyes of scientists."

Then let me tell you, this is a bubble world with a radius of 200 billion light years.

"..."

Our universe is a void, a void within a larger solid.

"How is that possible? Doesn't this massive solid collapse under the force of gravity?"

At least not yet, our bubble is still expanding in a supersolid block.The gravitational gravitational collapse is for a finite solid block. If the solid block that wraps our universe is infinite, there is no problem of collapse.Of course, this is just a guess, and no one knows whether the supersolid universe is finite.There are many conjectures, such as gravity is canceled by another force on a larger scale, just like the electromagnetic force is canceled by the nuclear force on a microscopic scale, we are not aware of this force, just like being in a bubble world. To the same gravity.From the information we have collected, your scientists have also guessed about the shape of the bubbles in the universe, but you don’t know it.

"What does that big solid look like? Is it also... a rock formation?"

No, we won't know until we reach our destination in 5 years.

"Where are you going?"

edge of the universe.We are a bubble ship called "Needle Point", remember the name?

"Remember, it is the bubble ship that first discovered the phenomenon of stratum density decline in the bubble world."

Yeah, don't know what we can find out.

"Are there other voids in the supersolid universe?"

You have thought far ahead.

"It's unbelievable."

Think of a few tiny bubbles in a boulder, and even if there were, finding them would be hard, but here we go.

"You guys are really great."

Well, good chat, but we still have to go. 5 years is too long, seize the day and night.Nice to meet you.Remember, mountains are everywhere.

Due to the obstruction of the ice crystal cloud, the last line of words is already very blurred.Then, the giant screen in the space gradually dimmed, and the giant ball itself also became smaller, and soon shrank to a point, becoming an inconspicuous star in the sea of ​​stars again, and this change was much faster than when it appeared.The star raced away in the night sky, disappearing in the western sky in an instant.

It was dark between the sea and the sky, the ice crystal cloud and the giant storm well were all gone, and there was only a dark chaos in the sky.Feng Fan heard the roar of the storm around him rapidly diminishing, and soon turned into a low whimper, and then disappeared completely, only the sound of the waves could be heard.

Feng Fan had the feeling of falling.He saw that the surrounding sea was slowly changing shape, and the round top of the seamount was flattening, like a giant umbrella being opened.He knew that the mountains in the sea were disappearing, and he was falling from an altitude of 9000 meters to the sea level.In his feeling, after only two or three minutes, he stopped falling.He knew this because the inertia of his body's descent caused him to sink under the surface of the sea that had stopped.Fortunately, the sinking was not deep this time, so he swam up quickly.

The surrounding area is already a normal sea surface, and the sea water and high mountains have disappeared without a trace, as if they never existed.The storm has also stopped completely.Although the storm was strong, it lasted only a short time. It only stirred up surface waves, so the sea quickly calmed down.

The ice crystal clouds in the sky have dissipated, and the brilliant starry sky reappeared.

Feng Fan looked up at the starry sky, imagining that distant world.It's really too far away, even the light will be exhausted.It was a long time ago, on the surface of the sea on that planet, Gagarin, who was in the world, was also looking up at the starry sky like he is now.Traveling through the vast desert of time and space, their souls are connected.

Feng Fan felt nauseous for a while, and spat out something.From the taste in his mouth, he knew it was blood.He suffered from altitude sickness at the summit of the 9000-meter-high seamount, and he suffered from pulmonary edema and hemorrhage, which is very dangerous.He was too weak to move under the sudden increase in gravity and had to rely on his life jacket to hold himself above the water.Although I don't know where the "Blue Water" is now, it is basically certain that there are no ships within a thousand kilometers.

When he climbed to the top of the mountain, Feng Fan felt that this life was enough, and then he could die calmly.But now, he suddenly became the most fearful person in the world.He has climbed the rocky roof of the world, and this time he has climbed the world's highest peak made of sea water. What kind of mountain will he climb next time?He had to live to know.The feeling he had felt in the snowstorm on Everest a few years earlier had returned, the feeling that had made him cut the climbing ropes connecting his companions and lovers and send them into the world of death, and now he knew he had done the right thing.If he really had to betray to save his life, he would betray.

He has to live because mountains are everywhere.

Published in the first issue of "Science Fiction World" in 2006

(End of this chapter)